Secure payment products and customer contact solutions firm Eckoh has secured a new patent for biometric security of phone payments.

Its process is used to authenticate a caller to a contact centre is the genuine cardholder.

Eckoh’s new process uses both voice biometrics to authenticate a caller, and a phone ‘footprint’ to authenticate the caller’s mobile device. It is the dual authentication mechanism which increases the merchant’s confidence that the caller genuinely is the cardholder.

Today, a fraudster may be in possession of stolen card details (including the 3-digit security code on the reverse of most cards), but they are highly unlikely to pass a voice biometric check and to also be calling from the cardholder’s own mobile phone. As such, Eckoh’s approach reduces the risk of fraud substantially.

Eckoh continues to work with global industry partners to bring its innovative new payments products such as this new dual authentication transaction process to market.